Hack Your Way Through the Interface

Use Registry hacks to make a grab bag of great interface changes.
Hidden in the mazes of the Registry are countless ways to hack XP's interface. Following are some of my favorites.

Hide All Icons in the Notification Area
The system tray, also called the notification area, is the small area on the far-right side of the taskbar, in which utilities and programs that run in the background, such as antivirus software, show their icons.
I don't find it a particularly intelligent use of screen real estate, so I prefer not to see the icons there. To hide them, run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer. Among other things, this key controls the display of objects throughout XP. Create a new DWORD called NoTrayItemsDisplay. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icons displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot.
While you're at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer key, you can also delete the My Recent Documents icon on the Start menu. Create a new DWORD called NoRecentDocsMenu. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icon displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot.

Hide Only Certain Icons in the Notification Area
You might want to display some icons in the notification area but hide others. If so, you can hide icons on a case-by-case basis. You'll do it by delving through menus, though, not by hacking the Registry. Right-click the taskbar and choose Properties - Taskbar. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears. This dialog box, as the name implies, lets you control how the taskbar and Start menu look and function.
In the Notification area of the dialog box, check the box next to "Hide inactive icons," then click Customize. The Customize Notifications dialog box appears.

Figure 1-1. Hiding inactive icons

Click the program's listing in the Behavior column, and choose from the drop-down menu to hide the icon when the program is inactive, to always hide it, or to never hide it (see Figure 1-1). Click OK twice. Your changes will take effect immediately.

Turn Off System Beeps
To me, system beeps that my PC makes when it encounters certain system errors are like balloon tipsgnatlike annoyances that I can do without. So, I turn them off using a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound, and find the Beep and ExtendedSounds String values. Set each value to No. Exit the Registry and reboot. The beeps will no longer sound.

Use Your Own Graphic for Your User Account
This one isn't a Registry hack, but I couldn't resist putting it in here since it's one of the more useful ways to customize the interface. The Windows XP graphic for your user account on the Start menu might not be to your taste, and your choice of other graphics to display there isn't particularly inspiring, either. After all, not everyone wants to be pictured as a rubber ducky, a snowflake, or a pair of horses.

But you're not limited to XP-supplied pictures for your user account; you can use any picture in .gif, .jpg, .png, or .bmp format. In this hack, I'll show you how to use your own picture.

To change your User Account picture to any one that you want, from the Control Panel choose User Accounts, then pick the account you want to change and choose Change my picture - Browse for more pictures. Navigate to the picture you want to use and click OK. Figure 1-2 shows the screen you'll use to change your picture.


Figure 1-2. Changing your User Account picture

If you have a digital camera or scanner attached to your PC, a button will show up on the screen shown in Figure 1-2 that lets you take a picture with the camera, or scan a picture with the scanner, and then immediately use that picture for your user account.
For those interested in saving keystrokes, there's a quicker way to get to the screen letting you customize your picture. From the Windows XP-style Start menu, click your picture, and the screen appears.